7. 'Billionaire'

"Don't be nervous. It'll be fine." Lay said soothingly to the wide eyed, unblinking Kyungsoo who was sitting by himself in the corner of the practice room. Kyungsoo looked up, startled by the comment. He was sure he looked pretty calm and put together but the Chinese male had always been good at seeing through people. It was like Lay was almost psychic when it comes to inner tumoils. "Like I said before, I'm a unicorn." Lay added as if he'd heard what Kyungsoo was thinking, tapping at his temple and flashed Kyungsoo a smile that made the dimple on his right cheek show up. 

"Hyung," Kyungsoo started.  "Do you know what you want to go for?"

Lay made a thinking face, watching the dorm members as they half fooled around and half practised seriously for the last minute spurt. "Jongdae wants to go for the main vocals and so does Luhan. Tao and Kris both wants to try out being rappers. As far as I know Minseok hyung is versatile..."

"And you hyung?" Kyungsoo asked curiously. His eyebrows knitted together as he thought about what other positions they could choose. The process for picking out the positions was somewhat like an audition and call back wrapped into one. However, things like the 'presenter' of the group, the 'face' of the group and designated images like the 'funny' one, the 'quiet' one, etc. were ultimately up to Lee Soo Man and the head of the departments. "Main Dancer?" Kyungsoo asked slowly, remembering the many nights of DDR battles where Lay triumphed over everyone. The only person on par with Lay was Kai. 

Lay grinned, ruffling the top of Kyungsoo's red hair. "You know me well." Lay leaned back against the wall. "I can best support the group with my dancing abilities since I find it easier to express myself through that than singing." Lay brought a hand up to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. "I guess I'm not very confident in my vocals." Lay chuckled softly but Kyungsoo could hear the self depreciation in his laughter. Plus, the dimple that always show when Lay was truly smiling was not present.

Kyungsoo frowned. "But hyung, you have a very nice voice. I'm sure if you try out for the main vocals, you will get it." Kyungsoo said, holding up a fist and grinned. "Have more faith in yourself. Lay hyung, fighting!"

Lay laughed, his smile reaching his eyes and dimple appearing on his cheek again. He ruffled Kyungsoo’s hair again, thinking to himself how encouraging his words were. "Kenchana. I'll go for the main dancer. I'm not good with competing with others and have you seen Chen and Kris' moves? If I don't step up as the dancer, our chance of debutting might go down the drain before we even start." Lay laughed, discreetly pointing over at Chen and Kris who were... doing something in front of the mirrored walls under Kai's exasperated supervision. It looked like the two were doing some sort of emu's mating dance that Kyungsoo once watched on national geographic as opposed to the smooth slides and turns that Kai was performing. His eyes met Lay's and they both burst out in snickers.

Meanwhile, a humming Baekhyun nudged his friend who was tuning his guitar. When Chanyeol looked over at Baekhyun, Baekhyun muttered softly under his breath. "How do you think Kyungsoo will do at the evaluation today?"

Chanyeol looked over to the corner in the back where Lay and Kyungsoo were chatting softly and laughing. "Didn't he say that he wanted to go for the main vocals?"

Luhan who was lying his head on Sehun's lap, turned to look at the Baekyeol couple before looking back at Kyungsoo and Lay. "Kyungsoo wants to go for the main vocals position?" He asked, loud enough to catch the rest of the members' attention but soft enough to not let Kyungsoo and Lay over hear that he was the topic of their conversation. 

Chen abandoned the emu mating dance routine to drop next into the small circle. "Do you think he's any good?" He asked.

"He must be. Or else do you think the great Lee Soo Man would put him into a labelled dorm without the consent of the dorm members and without the trial training period?" Kai reasoned.

Sehun scoffed bemusedly. "Just a week ago, you were cursing about him and suddenly you're his manager?"

Kai narrowed his eyes at Sehun. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sehun. Jongin." Suho called out their names with the firmness of a leader, snapping them out of their blossoming anger. "But Jongin has a point. If he wasn't good then Lee Soo Man seonsaeng-nim wouldn't put him with us."

"But has anyone heard Kyungsoo sing?" Tao asked curiously. They fell into silence. They've never heard the doe eyed boy sing. Chen planned to do some vocal warm ups with Kyungsoo but Xiumin (who was already at the practice room) had ed him with promises of funny cat videos. They've all seen him dance whilst playing dance dance revolution. He wasn't necessarily bad but his movements were often stiff when it came to improvising. As for singing, they would catch Kyungsoo humming under his breath as he cooked and sometimes they would hear a phantom half lyric being sung out but it was not a full out song. And it was not enough to come to gauge how well Kyungsoo sang.

"I don't think my inner vocalist will allow him to stay at the dorm if he can't sing." Chen said. At the stares and half-hearted glares he received, he sighed. "I like Kyungsoo. He's a nice guy and a good friend but let's face it, this industry isn't very kind. If he can't hit the criterias right, it'll be better if he is dropped now. That way he wouldn't be hurt in the future." 

Chen's words left a sombre feel to them. Lay and Kyungsoo immediately felt something was off when they joined the circle but they didn't get to ask what was wrong since an assistant teacher knocked on the wall, snapping them out of their thoughts. "Exo? We're ready for you."

They nodded and followed the man to the evaluation room, whispering words of encouragement to one another. Kyungsoo found himself being given the most encouragements which was accompanied by guilt laced smiles. Only Lay's smile was bright. This made Kyungsoo's nervous heart thump faster.

They were taken to a large auditorium where a line of judges were sitting in the middle of the judging panel with neutral expressions and a name plate each in front of them. Lee Soo Man sat in the middle of the table and regarded them with cool eyes. The head of hair and makeup, and fashion department immediately started muttering to each other under their breath and started scrawling away on their clipboards at the sight of them. The head of music department, like Lee Soo Man, watched them with a cool glint in her eyes while the head of the dance department, a muscular, good looking foreigner smiled warmly at them.

Kyungsoo, to his horror, felt cold sweat building up as the exo members one by one introduced themselves. Perhaps, it was because they were trained prior to the evaluation but everyone seemed to be calm. When it came to Kyungsoo's turn, he stumbled over his own name. Kyungsoo felt blood rush immediately to his cheeks as he reintroduced himself, managing to not stutter the second time around. His mind went wild with negative thoughts when he saw all the judges write something on their clipboards when that happened. 

"Okay. So your base concept is fantasy. How have you fit your looks to this concept?" The head of hair and makeup asked. 

Suho answered calmly with his 'angelic' smile on his face, "Because the concept is fantasy, we incorporated elements of supernatural into our concept and chose werewolves as our first concept."

"Beasts, huh? A concept befitting your reputations I see, if the rumours are true." The head of the music department said with a curt smile. It was hard to determine whether or not her words held any edge to it. "Continue."

Suho explained and pointed out the key points to the outfits they were wearing. Kyungsoo's mind blanked Suho's explainations out, hands clutching the hems of his shirt tightly. He was still thinking about the mess up during his introduction. 

"Don't think too much." A whisper came from his right. Kyungsoo turned slightly to catch Chanyeol throwing a wink at Kyungsoo's direction and just like that, his nerves went away. It was weird how the giant always seems to lighten the mood and Kyungsoo found himself being grateful for the adorable reassurance (the wink came out more like he got something in his eye) and he nodded at Chanyeol. 

In no time, the head of hair and makeup and the fashion department were in their faces, scrutinizing every bit of their body and clothes and recording their findings in their clipboards. The rest of the judges just took general glances. They could tell that they definitely passed that bit since the judge for the hair and makeup was cooing at them like a proud grandmother and the judge for fashion complimented them on their looks.

The real evaluation started; head of the dance department had some simple choreography for all of them to do. This was to get a gauge on how good of dancers everyone was. When it came to the position of main dancers, only Lay stepped up for the M-dorm and for the K-dorm, Kai. It was the first time Kyungsoo saw Lay and Kai dance side by side. Even to the untrained eyes of Kyungsoo, they were good. They moved to the beat and rhythm of the music that played, never missing a step but both had a distinct style to their dance. Lay's dance moves were powerful and drew attention immediately with intricate and suave movements whereas Kai's moves were deliberate and sharp, almost an art form of its own that lingered in your minds. There was a very good chance that Lay and Kai got the position if the grins and nods were any indication.

Then came the vocal evaluation. They could sing whatever they wished; language was not a problem as long as pronunciation was good. They all took turns singing in the middle of the unmerciful hall. Because of the auditorium's curved structure, every sound, every note, every rise and fall of a pitch reverberated back from the walls to the far corners of the audience. Any and every mistake or hitch in your singing would be glaringly obvious to the judges. The Head of the music department was as unmerciful as the walls. She called out on the Chinese members mis-pronunciations, Suho's voice going flat at one part of the song, Chen using too much vibrato and criticised song choices that either lacked or had too much of an abundance of emotions conveyed. 'If they, who'd trained more than him were being dished out criticism like candies, how was he going to survive?' Kyungsoo worried to himself. Kyungsoo found himself growing more and more anxious as one by one names were called out and his dormmates stepped up to perform. As if to play with his emotions, he was the last one to perform.

"Do Kyungsoo-ssi." The judge called out and Kyungsoo's breath got caught in his throat. He'd completely froze in his seat. If it weren't for Chen, he might've stayed glued to his seat. He quickly made his way up to the stage. "What are you going to sing for us, Kyungsoo-ssi?"

"I'm going to s-sing My Story by Brown Eyed Girls-sunbae." Kyungsoo choked out. The judge nodded steely and the opening beats of the song played. Kyungsoo breathed out slowly. 'You can do this Do Kyungsoo. Just imagine singing it with Hyunsik. It'll be fine.' He nodded to himself and opened his mouth to sing.

The exo members watched with anticipation as Kyungsoo's face set into a determined expression and his cherry red lips parts to sing... only for their expectations to deflate immediately.

Chen cringed when a strangled squeal got released from Kyungsoo's mouth instead of lyrics. He could see the exact moment Kyungsoo froze afterwards, his huge eyes unblinking and shocked at the betrayal of his own vocal chords. The music got cut immediately to fill the auditorium with a deafening silence. Choking was about the worst thing you could possibly do at a concept evaluate week. 

The judge breathed out heavily, the sound further amplified by the microphones making the displeasure was almost tangible. And she finally said, "Kyungsoo-ssi, you wanted to go for the main vocals position right?" Kyungsoo snapped out of his horror and nodded slowly. "I will advise you to reconsider this. In fact, you may want to reconsider your career choice as well." 

Those words were like a sharp knife to his heart. Lee Soo Man wrapped up the evaluation with an announcement that the position list and their new specialised schedules, tailored to their new positions, will be sent to their dorms by the evening and they were dismissed. Kyungsoo bowed to the judges for their time and followed his dormmates out of the auditorium. They could see the shell-shocked state of their friend but they didn't know what to say to comfort the boy. 

"D-don't worry Kyungsoo! It's just a concept makeover week. Nothing is set in stone you know!" The happy virus said, with a laugh that even he himself found forced.

"I think I want to be alone for a while hyung." Kyungsoo said in a small voice. He separated himself from the group. Chanyeol opened his mouth to call out after him but Kris stopped him.

"He needs to be alone for a while." Kris said with a strained voice. Chanyeol sighed. He'd finally got Kyungsoo to just call him by his name but now he was no more than 'hyung' again. 

~*~

True to his words, the position list was sent to the Exo dorm by night fall. Kai and Lay unsurprisingly got the position of main dancers. Luhan and Sehun got the position of lead dancer as well as lead vocalist and rapper respectively. Chen and Baekhyun got their wish and got the position of main vocalists. Chanyeol and Kris got the part of main rappers which they'd tried out for while Tao got lead rapper. Suho and Xiumin both got the post for lead vocalists. 

"What is going to happen to Kyungsoo?" Sehun asked as they looked down at the list where Kyungsoo's name was. The section space next to the name where everyone else's positions were listed, for Kyungsoo, it was blank. They stood in gloom silence.

~*~

"Hyung?! Hyung where are you?!" The Exo dorm was greeted with the panicked yells of Kai first thing in the morning. Xiumin, having already awoke like the early bird he was, looked up from the replays of last month's soccer match and watched as Kai ran past him to the communal bathroom hurriedly. Within moments, Kai was back at the living room. "Umin hyung, have you seen Kyungsoo?"

Immediately Xiumin paused the game. "What happened?" He demanded, narrowing his eyes and Kai was suddenly reminded of the fact that Xiumin was actually the eldest of them all and that, despite his smaller physique, he was also the strongest of them all. Kai bit down on his lower lip and ran a hand through his hair. Heads poked out of their shared rooms, having awoken from all the shouting Kai did. Chanyeol yawned openly and threaded over to the communal bathroom in a sleep-ridden haze. Xiumin put down the remote onto the coffee table and stood up from the sofa. "Jongin, what happened to Kyungsoo?"

"He never came back." Kai muttered. Chanyeol stopped dead in his tracks. "You don't think he'll do something stupid..." Kai's features twisted with a rare unadulterated fear before he gasped, "do you?"

"We'll spread out and look for him." Xiumin said. In no time, everyone had brushed and washed and was running around SM town, calling out Kyungsoo's name. 

~*~

"I thought I would find you here." Kyungsoo's head snapped up to find Chanyeol jogging up to him. The giant looked ruffled, face red and sweat dripped down his face. 

"Hyung." Kyungsoo gapped. "W-what happened? Why are you like that?"

"I told you. J-just call me C-Chanyeol. Let me, let me calm d-down first." Chanyeol gasped out, in air noisily before slumping onto the plush red seat next to Kyungsoo.  They sat unmoving for a while, the only sounds in the auditorium being Chanyeol's harsh breathing which eventually subsided. "Were you here the whole night?" Chanyeol asked, head turning to Kyungsoo who nodded slowly. "The guards didn't catch you?" Kyungsoo shook his head. Chanyeol sighed softly, shifting in his chair so he was half lying, half sitting on his side facing the depressed boy. Kyungsoo looked down at his lap with a blank vacant stare. There were bags under his wide eyes that looked a little red rimmed. He'd been crying.

Kyungsoo flinched when a hand tentatively patted his hair and looked to his side to see Chanyeol beaming at him. They continued in silence. It was perhaps the first time Kyungsoo witnessed the loud, vibrant, self-proclaimed 'Happy Virus' so mellow. He'd expected Chanyeol to question him some more. To probe him for answers. But no. He just sat there, his hair, waiting for him to initiate the conversation. "I messed up really bad, didn't I?" Kyungsoo finally said.

"Aniyo." Chanyeol lied. 

Kyungsoo let a weak chuckle. "Liar." Kyungsoo sighed heavily, leaning back against the chair and turned to Chanyeol. "Do you think I'll be kicked out of the dorm?"

Chanyeol smiled but something menacing glinted in his eyes. "I won't let them." He promised. The menacing glint went as quickly as it appeared. "If need be, we can elope! Get away from all the drama!" Kyungsoo snorted and rolled his eyes at the older male. Chanyeol laughed as well, setting aside the ridiculous idea. "Say... I really want to hear you sing."

 Kyungsoo furrowed his brows, mulling the idea over but Chanyeol gave a ridiculously exaggerated pout and Kyungsoo couldn't say otherwise. "Then how about this? You play the guitar and I'll sing!"

Chanyeol let out a whine. "I played the guitar at yesterday's evaluation. And I practiced a lot before that. If I play one more time, my fingers will wear off!" He wiggled his fingers at Kyungsoo. 

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. He could see Chanyeol wasn't serious because of the smile on his face. His smiles were just like the owner, honest and unable to lie. Just to play along, Kyungsoo poked out his bottom lip in a pout. "But I like hearing you play the guitar."

Chanyeol let out an exaggerated heavy sigh. "You're lucky I like you." Chanyeol tried to jump coolly onto the stage but his legs decided that was the perfect time for some slapstick comedy and he flopped down onto the carpeted floor of the auditorium. Kyungsoo giggled at the tall boy's misfortune as Chanyeol slowly, with an embarrassed flush, walked up onto the stage and disappeared behind the curtains for a moment before appearing with a guitar in his hands that he got off backstage. "Come up here." Chanyeol smiled, patting the spot next to him as he sat on the edge of the stage. Kyungsoo got up from the chair and pulled himself smoothly onto the edge of the stage and sat next to the giant. "Do you have a song request?"

"Hm... how about 'billionaire'?" Kyungsoo suggested. It was one of his favorites because he related well to the song. Kyungsoo wanted to accomplish so much - although not only for the sake of money - and the song had his desires pegged down perfectly. Chanyeol cleared his throat, crossed his legs so the guitar could be positioned more comfortably for him to play and started to strum the guitar.

Kyungsoo's eyes closed as he listened to Chanyeol's fingers coaxing the strings to sing. Thanks to the walls of the auditorium, the sounds echoed throughout without the need of an amplifier. The memory of him choking not that long ago made him cringe internally but Chanyeol's foot nudged his, making his eyes fly open. Chanyeol gave him that encouraging smile and that fail wink and Kyungsoo sang.

"I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad." Chanyeol almost messed up in his strumming when he heard Kyungsoo's voice. He looked at the Kyungsoo with wide eyes who was oblivious to the shock Chanyeol was experiencing as he continued singing. "Buy all of the things I never had. I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine, smiling next to Oprah and the Queen."

~*~

Chen halted dead in his running, his mental antenna alerting him of the presence... no, emergence of a fellow vocalist. His breath slowed down as he followed his internal compass until he came to the auditorium. The door was half ajar and there he caught sound of it. 

"Oh every time I close my eyes, I see my name in shining lights." 

The sound of a voice so smooth, it was silk to the ears. And the lyrics... they were emotions fashioned into words that made beautiful harmony with the guitar music. The combination of all this made goosebumps rise on Chen's skin and made his senses tingle.

"A different city every night oh I swear the world better prepare," Chen slowly walked into the auditorium and his breath got caught in his chest. The source of the singing was Kyungsoo? "For when I'm a billionaire!"

"He's good." A whisper startled Chen and he turned to see Lay sitting on the seat closest to the door. Soft pattering of footfalls made Chen turn again to see Sehun peering into the auditorium. The singing must've strung him along like it did to Chen.

Kyungsoo sang fluently; there was not a hitch in his pitch and his English was barely accented and although his pronunciation sounded slightly awkward in places, the singing was... as cliché as it sounds, equivalent to an angel choir. Chanyeol must've thought the same since there was this look on his face in equal amounts of endearment and worship.

Kyungsoo didn't sing the whole song. Just the Bruno's part and the chorus so it was cut short but Chen found himself wanting to hear more of Kyungsoo's voice. "Were you a mermaid in your past life?" Chanyeol asked seriously, leaning over his guitar to look Kyungsoo dead in the eyes. "Because I think I'm under a spell here."

Kyungsoo couldn't help the snort that escaped and Chanyeol chortled. Perhaps it was because he'd heard him sing but Chen started seeing Kyungsoo in a whole new light. The laughter he previously thought nothing significant of became bells in his ears. Chen felt something had washed over him. It wasn't just admiration of Kyungsoo's singing or respect of his vocals. It was something that ran deeper. Whatever it was, Chen wasn't completely sure he liked suddenly seeing his friend in these weird rose colored lights.

Fiend's thoughts

That's chapter 7 coming to a full circle! Lay and Chanyeol are just too sweet for their own good. Chen can be all 'no homo' but sweetie, nobody can resist the squishy. That being said, although we have now heard Kyungsoo sing and choke and they realized the obvious - that Kyungsoo can really sing - what can Kyungsoo do about the blank space next to his name? Can Chanyeol help prevent Kyungsoo getting kicked off the dorm and group or is his promise going to be broken, stay tuned to find out!

Sneakpeeks~

"I meant what I said, Do Kyungsoo-ssi. You might want to rethink your career choices."

Kai looked back and forth between Kyungsoo and the suitcase that he was packing before finally stomping over to the redhead and engulfing him in a hug.

Kyungsoo never felt so much love for his dorm mates, his friends, his pack. "I wish I can be with you guys forever."